Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians

of Hon. Wm. Lander to the Confederate Congress, he was elected to the State
Convention to fill his place.

This was the only political
office he ever held and he always refused to hold any other.

He practiced his profession
in competition with such lawyers as William Lander, W. P. Bynum, Haywood Guion,
and J. F. Hoke, and received his full share of business.

In 1874, he received the
Democratic nomination for Judge of the Ninth Judicial District, and was elected
by a majority of 2,100, nearly double the former Democratic majority. His term
expired in 1882. He has a large family, and like "old Chuckey," he is "spreading
himself" to take care of them.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. MACON COUNTY.

James Lowrie Robinson was
born in Franklin, Macon county, September 17, 1838. His father, James Robinson,
came to North Carolina, from Tennessee, was a merchant of note and character,
and died in the village that was the birth place of his son, June, 1843. His
early training was only what the common schools of his county and the village
Academy afforded; and a year at Emory & Henry College, was added to his
education by his own hard-earned wages and the kind assistance of a friend and
relative.

When armed men sprang up in
every hamlet of North Carolina, at the call of her authorities, he volunteered
as a private foot soldier in Company H, 16th North Carolina troops, and became
Quarter-master Sergeant in the same regiment. At the re-organization he was
elected Captain of the Company of which he was a member and its triumphs became
a part of his history. Wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, he led his men over
the fields of Manassas, when it was baptized with blood a second time.
Participating in the engagement at Chantilly Farm, he was present at the
terrible struggle that decided the Maryland campaign at Sharpsburg.

When he had laid aside his
sword and returned to peaceful vocations, his people recognized in him the
deliberate courage and solid qualities of mind that are valuable in civil
employments, and chose him to be their Commoner in 1868. He was returned without
opposition in 1870. No mark of confidence could have bestowed greater honor upon
him. He had been one of a bold and true minority that had withstood the
seductions of a reckless and extravagant administration, and had rendered
success for the Democracy possible. When chosen a representative in 1872, he was
almost by common consent, elevated to the highest honor of the body of which he
was a member, and when the Speaker's gavel was again tendered him in 1874, it
came as a palm of merit that he had no right to put aside.

The retribution in the
history of North Carolina came in 1876. The ruined places were restored. The
counties, bearing names conspicuously North Carolinian, and composing his
Senatorial District, called him to serve them in the Upper